# Tar-Baby

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American Folklore character and metaphor

"Tar Baby" redirects here. For other uses, see [Tar Baby (disambiguation)](/source/Tar_Baby_(disambiguation)).

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Br'er Rabbit and the Tar-Baby, drawing by [E. W. Kemble](/source/E._W._Kemble) from "The Tar-Baby", by [Joel Chandler Harris](/source/Joel_Chandler_Harris), 1904

The **Tar-Baby** is the second of the [Uncle Remus](/source/Uncle_Remus) stories published in 1881; it is about a doll made of [tar](/source/Tar) and [turpentine](/source/Turpentine) used by the [villainous](/source/Villain) [Br'er Fox](/source/Br'er_Fox) to entrap [Br'er Rabbit](/source/Br'er_Rabbit). The more that Br'er Rabbit fights the Tar-Baby, the more entangled he becomes.

The phrase "tar baby" has acquired idiomatic meanings over the years, including a negative racial [connotation](/source/Connotation).

## Publication history

Joel Chandler Harris collected the story in its original dialect and included it in his 1881 book, "Uncle Remus, his Songs and his Sayings".[1] His introduction mentions earlier publication of some of his Uncle Remus Stories in the columns of a daily newspaper, *The Atlanta Constitution*. Harris said these legends had "become a part of the domestic history of every Southern family." Indeed, [Theodore Roosevelt](/source/Theodore_Roosevelt) (the 26th president of the United States, born in 1858), noted in his autobiography that as a young child he heard Br'er Rabbit tales from his Southern aunt, Anna Bulloch, and that his uncle, Robert Roosevelt, transcribed some of her stories from her dictation.[2]

## Plot

Br'er Rabbit attacking the Tar-Baby, 1895 illustration

The 'Tar Baby' story comes from the oral tradition of black slaves on the old plantations of the American South, one of many [Uncle Remus](/source/Uncle_Remus) stories. It features [Br'er Fox](/source/Br'er_Fox), who constructs a doll out of a lump of pine tar and dresses it with some clothes. When [Br'er Rabbit](/source/Br'er_Rabbit) comes along he addresses the tar "baby" amiably but receives no response. Br'er Rabbit becomes offended by what he perceives as the tar baby's lack of manners, punches it and, in doing so, becomes stuck. The more Br'er Rabbit punches and kicks the tar baby out of rage, the worse he gets stuck.

In Joel Chandler Harris's popular retelling of the tar baby story, the fox then saunters over and gloats, laughing uproariously, and invites the rabbit to his house to "take dinner" with him, saying he has some calamus root and will take no excuse. The little boy listening to the story asks if the fox ate the rabbit, but the storyteller demurs and tells the boy to run off because he's being called. The Harris version seems to end there.

A couple of stories later, though, the tale continues in Harris's story, "How Mr. Rabbit was Too Sharp for Mr. Fox". This ending is now popularly incorporated into the tar baby story:

Now that Br'er Rabbit is stuck, Br'er Fox ponders how to dispose of him. The helpless but cunning Br'er Rabbit pleads, "Do anything you want with me – roas' me, hang me, skin me, drown me – but please, Br'er Fox, don't fling me in dat brier-patch", prompting the sadistic Br'er Fox to do exactly that because he gullibly believes it will inflict the maximum pain on Br'er Rabbit. However, as rabbits are at home in thickets like the brier-patch, the resourceful Br'er Rabbit escapes.

## Analysis

In [folklore studies](/source/Folklore_studies), the story of the Tar-Baby is classified in the international [Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index](/source/Aarne-Thompson-Uther_Index) as tale type ATU 175, "The Tar-Baby and the Rabbit".[3][4]

## Related stories

Variations on the tar-baby legend are found in the folklore of more than one culture. In the *[Journal of American Folklore](/source/Journal_of_American_Folklore)* in 1943, [Aurelio M. Espinosa](/source/Aurelio_Macedonio_Espinosa_Sr.) discussed various different motifs within 267 versions of the tar-baby story that were ostensibly 'in his possession'.[5] Espinosa used the existence of similar motifs to argue that the tar baby story and hundreds of other myths throughout the world, despite the significant variations between them, originate from a single ancient Indian myth.[6] The next year, Archer Taylor added a list of tar baby stories from more sources around the world, citing scholarly claims of its earliest origins in [India](/source/India) and [Iran](/source/Iran).[7] Espinosa later published documentation on tar baby stories from a variety of language communities around the world.[8]

Anthropologist [Elsie Clews Parsons](/source/Elsie_Clews_Parsons) compiled an extensive list of references of the *Tar Baby* stories, from North American, Latin American and African publications on folklore.[9]

A very similar [West African](/source/West_Africa) tale is told of the [mythical](/source/Mythical) hero [Anansi](/source/Anansi) the Spider. In this version, Anansi creates a wooden doll and covers it over with gum, then puts a plate of yams in its lap, in order to capture the she-fairy Mmoatia (sometimes described as an "elf" or "dwarf"). Mmoatia takes the bait and eats the yams, but grows angry when the doll does not respond and strikes it, becoming stuck in the process.[*[citation needed](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed)*]

From [The Bahamas](/source/The_Bahamas), the tar-baby story was published by *[The Journal of American Folklore](/source/The_Journal_of_American_Folklore)* in 1891 in *Some Tales from Bahama Folk-Lore* by [Charles Lincoln Edwards](/source/Charles_Lincoln_Edwards). Edwards had collected the stories from Green Turtle Cay, Abaco in the summer of 1888. In the tale, B' Rabby refused to dig for water, and didn't help grow the field. He tricked B' Lizard and B' Bouki while they were standing watch by the water and the field. The other animals got tired of his tricks, got together and created a tar-baby. B' Rabby was caught by the tar-baby and the other animals who wanted to throw him into the sea, but he talked them into throwing him into a bush, and eventually got away.[10]

In a variant recorded in [Jamaica](/source/Jamaica), Anansi himself was once similarly trapped with a tar-baby made by the eldest son of Mrs. Anansi, after Anansi pretended to be dead in order to steal her peas.[11] In a [Spanish language](/source/Spanish_language) version told in the mountainous parts of [Colombia](/source/Colombia), an unnamed rabbit is trapped by the *Muñeco de Brea* (tar doll). A [Buddhist](/source/Buddhist) myth tells of Prince Five-weapons (the future Buddha) who encounters the [ogre](/source/Ogre) Sticky-Hair in a forest.[12][13][14]

The tar-baby theme is present in the folklore of various tribes of Meso-America and of South America: it is found in such stories[15] as the [Nahuatl](/source/Nahuatl) (of Mexico) "Lazy Boy and Little Rabbit" (González Casanova 1946, pp. 55–67), [Pipil](/source/Pipil_people) (of El Salvador) "Rabbit and Little Fox" (Schultes 1977, pp. 113–116), and [Palenquero](/source/Palenquero) (of Colombia) "Rabbit, Toad, and Tiger" (Patiño Rosselli 1983, pp. 224–229). In Mexico, the tar baby story is also found among [Mixtec](/source/Mixtec),[16] [Zapotec](/source/Zapotec_peoples),[17] and [Popoluca](/source/Popoluca).[18][19] In North America, the tale appears in [White Mountain Apache](/source/White_Mountain_Apache) lore as "Coyote Fights a Lump of Pitch".[20] In this story, white men are said to have erected the pitch-man that ensnares [Coyote](/source/Coyote_(mythology)).[20]: 360

According to [James Mooney](/source/James_Mooney) in "Myths of the Cherokee",[21] the tar-baby story may have been influenced in America by the [Cherokee](/source/Cherokee) "Tar Wolf" story, considered unlikely to have been derived from similar African stories: "Some of these animal stories are common to widely separated [Native American] tribes among whom there can be no suspicion of [African] influences. Thus the famous "tar baby" story has variants, not only among the Cherokee, but also in New Mexico, Washington [State], and southern Alaska—wherever, in fact, the pine supplies enough gum to be molded into a ball for [Native American] uses".[*[citation needed](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed)*]

In the Tar Wolf story, the animals were thirsty during a dry spell, and agreed to dig a well. The lazy rabbit refused to help dig, and so had no right to drink from the well. But she was thirsty, and stole from the well at night. The other animals fashioned a [wolf](/source/Wolf) out of tar and placed it near the well to scare the thief. The rabbit was scared at first, but when the tar wolf did not respond to her questions, she struck it and was held fast. Then she struggled with it and became so ensnared that she could not move. The next morning, the animals discovered the rabbit and proposed various ways of killing her, such as cutting her head off, and the rabbit responded to each idea saying that it would not harm her. Then an animal suggested throwing the rabbit into the thicket to die. At this, the rabbit protested vigorously and pleaded for her life. The animals threw the rabbit into the thicket. The rabbit then gave a whoop and bounded away, calling out to the other animals "This is where I live!"[*[citation needed](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed)*]

## Idiomatic references

The story has given rise to two American English idioms. References to Br'er Rabbit's feigned protestations such as "please don't fling me in dat brier-patch" refer to guilefully seeking something by pretending to protest, with a "briar patch" (a [thicket](/source/Thicket) of thorny plants) often meaning a more advantageous situation or environment for one of the parties (but not for the other party).[22]

Alluding to Br'er Rabbit becoming entangled in the tar, the term *tar baby* has been used to refer to a problem that is exacerbated by attempts to struggle with it, or by extension to a situation in which mere contact can lead to becoming inextricably involved.[23]

[Pine tar](/source/Pine_tar), as meant in the original story and idiomatic usage, varies from golden to brown in color, with a golden color when thinned with turpentine. Bitumen/liquid asphalt has sometimes been called "tar" due to its replacement of pine tar in many uses. Because asphalt is dark brown to black, some who heard the term "tar baby" who were unfamiliar with the original story or established idiom assumed it was a term to disparagingly refer to black people, especially black children,[24] and has become associated with racism in that usage. The term has been used as a racial slur against Black people, especially Black children.[24] In many versions of the Uncle Remus story, the tar baby is compared to a Black person, whether by being illustrated with typically African features or described with phrases such as "a little Congo" or "as black as a Guinea Negro."[25] Historically, "tar baby" has been used as marketing alongside [blackface](/source/Blackface) and [pickaninny](/source/Pickaninny) caricatures.[26][25] Due to these racial connotations, politicians have faced pushback for using the term.[27]

## See also

- [Cautionary tale](/source/Cautionary_tale)

- [Reverse psychology](/source/Reverse_psychology)

- [Wicked problem](/source/Wicked_problem)

- [*Tar Baby*](/source/Tar_Baby_(novel)) - A novel by [Toni Morrison](/source/Toni_Morrison)

## References

1. **[^](#cite_ref-1)** ["Uncle Remus: His Songs and His Sayings"](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2306). Project Gutenberg. August 1, 2000. Retrieved May 25, 2010.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-2)** Roosevelt, Theodore (1914). [*Theodore Roosevelt: an autobiography*](https://archive.org/details/theodoreroosevel0000theo/page/12/mode/1up?q=%22the+Brer+Rabbit+stories%22). The Macmillan Company.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-3)** Aarne, Antti; Thompson, Stith. *The types of the folktale: a classification and bibliography*. Folklore Fellows Communications FFC no. 184. Helsinki: Academia Scientiarum Fennica, 1961. pp. 63-64.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-4)** Uther, Hans-Jörg (2004). *The Types of International Folktales: A Classification and Bibliography, Based on the System of Antti Aarne and Stith Thompson*. Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia, Academia Scientiarum Fennica. p. 120. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-951-41-0963-8](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-951-41-0963-8).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-Espinosa_1943_5-0)** Espinosa, Aurelio M. (1943). "A New Classification of the Fundamental Elements of the Tar-Baby Story on the Basis of Two Hundred and Sixty-Seven Versions". *The Journal of American Folklore*. **56** (219): 31–37. [doi](/source/Doi_(identifier)):[10.2307/535912](https://doi.org/10.2307%2F535912). [ISSN](/source/ISSN_(identifier)) [0021-8715](https://search.worldcat.org/issn/0021-8715). [JSTOR](/source/JSTOR_(identifier)) [535912](https://www.jstor.org/stable/535912). Cited in [Campbell (1968)](#CITEREFCampbell1968), p. 87

1. **[^](#cite_ref-Espinosa_1938_6-0)** Espinosa, Aurelio M. (1938). "More Notes on the Origin and History of the Tar-Baby Story". *Folklore*. **49** (2): 168–181. [doi](/source/Doi_(identifier)):[10.1080/0015587X.1938.9718748](https://doi.org/10.1080%2F0015587X.1938.9718748). [ISSN](/source/ISSN_(identifier)) [0015-587X](https://search.worldcat.org/issn/0015-587X). [JSTOR](/source/JSTOR_(identifier)) [1257771](https://www.jstor.org/stable/1257771).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-Taylor_1944_7-0)** Taylor, Archer (1944). "The Tarbaby Once More". *Journal of the American Oriental Society*. **64** (1): 4–7. [doi](/source/Doi_(identifier)):[10.2307/594049](https://doi.org/10.2307%2F594049). [ISSN](/source/ISSN_(identifier)) [0003-0279](https://search.worldcat.org/issn/0003-0279). [JSTOR](/source/JSTOR_(identifier)) [594049](https://www.jstor.org/stable/594049).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-Espinosa_1990_8-0)** Espinosa, Aurelio M. (1990). *The Folklore of Spain in the American Southwest: Traditional Spanish Folk Literature in Northern New Mexico and Southern Colorado*. University of Oklahoma Press. pp. 58–60. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-0-8061-2249-6](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-8061-2249-6).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-Parsons_1943_9-0)** Parsons, Elsie Worthington Clews, ed. (1943). *Folk-lore of the Antilles, French And English, Part 3*. New York: American Folk-lore Society. pp. 48–51. [OCLC](/source/OCLC_(identifier)) [295797](https://search.worldcat.org/oclc/295797).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-Edwards_1890_10-0)** Edwards, Charles Lincoln (1890). *Some Tales from Bahama Folk-Lore*. pp. 47–54. [OCLC](/source/OCLC_(identifier)) [12030157](https://search.worldcat.org/oclc/12030157). Read at the Annual meeting of the American Folk-lore Society, November 29, 1890.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-Beckwith_1924_11-0)** Beckwith, Martha Warren (1924). ["Anansi and the Tar-baby"](https://www.sacred-texts.com/afr/jas/jas021.htm). *Jamaica Anansi Stories*. New York: American Folk-Lore Society. [OCLC](/source/OCLC_(identifier)) [647204394](https://search.worldcat.org/oclc/647204394) – via Sacred-texts.com.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-Campbell_p85_12-0)** Campbell, Joseph (1968). [*The Hero with a Thousand Faces*](https://archive.org/details/herowiththousand00camp/page/87/mode/1up?view=theater) (2nd ed.). Princeton University Press. pp. 85–89. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-0-6910-1784-6](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-6910-1784-6).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-Warner_1902_13-0)** Warner, Charles Dudley, ed. (1902). ["Pilpay: Prince Five-Weapons"](https://books.google.com/books?id=4uQpAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA11460). *A Library of the World's Best Literature, Vol. XX*. New York: J. A. Hill. pp. 11460–11463. [OCLC](/source/OCLC_(identifier)) [3648354](https://search.worldcat.org/oclc/3648354) – via Google Books.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-Burlingame_1922_14-0)** ["A Buddhist Tar-Baby"](https://archive.org/details/buddhistparables00burl/page/41/mode/1up?ref=ol&view=theater). *Buddhist Parables: Translated From the Original Pāli by Eugene Watson Burlingame*. New Haven: Yale University Press. 1922. pp. 41–44. [LCCN](/source/LCCN_(identifier)) [22024886](https://lccn.loc.gov/22024886). [OCLC](/source/OCLC_(identifier)) [1317717](https://search.worldcat.org/oclc/1317717).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-Margery_1990_15-0)** Margery, Enrique (1990). "The Tar-Baby Motif". *Latin American Indian Literatures Journal*. **6** (1): 9. [ISSN](/source/ISSN_(identifier)) [0888-5613](https://search.worldcat.org/issn/0888-5613).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-16)** Dyk, Anne, ed. 1959. "Tarbaby." *Mixteco texts*, pp. 33–44. (Linguistic Series 3.) Norman: Summer Institute of Linguistics of the University of Oklahoma.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-17)** Stubblefield, Carol and Morris Stubblefield, compilers. 1994. Rabbit and Coyote. *Mitla Zapotec texts*, pp. 61–102. (Folklore texts in Mexican Indian languages no. 3. Language Data, Amerindian Series 12.) Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-18)** Clark, Lawrence E. 1961. Rabbit and Coyote. *Sayula Popoluca texts, with grammatical outline*, pp. 147–175. (Linguistic Series 6.) Norman: Summer Institute of Linguistics of the University of Oklahoma.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-19)** Foster, George McClelland. Sierra popoluca folklore and beliefs. Vol. 42. University of California Press, 1945.

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-Erdoes_Ortiz_1984_20-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-Erdoes_Ortiz_1984_20-1) Erdoes, Richard; Ortiz, Alfonso, eds. (1984). "Coyote Fights a Lump of Pitch". [*American Indian myths and legends*](https://archive.org/details/americanindianmy0000unse_a5s3/page/359/mode/1up?q=%22COYOTE+FIGHTS+A+LUMP+OF+PITCH+white%22). New York: Pantheon Books. pp. 359–361. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-0-394-50796-5](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-394-50796-5).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-21)** James Mooney, "Myths of the Cherokee", Dover 1995, pp. 271–273, 232–236, 450. Reprinted from a Government Printing Office publication of 1900. Also, ["The Rabbit And The Tar Wolf" Cherokee story](https://www.sacred-texts.com/nam/cher/motc/motc021.htm)

1. **[^](#cite_ref-22)** Bickley, R. Bruce Jr. (2016). ["Briar Patch"](https://archive.org/details/africanamericanf0000unse_f1a7/page/43/mode/1up?view=theater). In Prahlad, Anand (ed.). *African American Folklore: An Encyclopedia for Students*. Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO. pp. 43–44. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-1-61069-930-3](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-1-61069-930-3).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-OCD_2002_23-0)** ["tar baby"](https://archive.org/details/conciseoxfordeng0000unse_v6w6/page/1465/mode/1up?q=%22tar+baby%22). *The Concise Oxford English Dictionary*. Oxford University Press. 2002. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-0-19-860572-0](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-19-860572-0).

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-OED_24-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-OED_24-1) ["tar baby"](https://www.oed.com/search/dictionary/?q=tar+baby). *[Oxford English Dictionary](/source/Oxford_English_Dictionary)* (online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or [participating institution membership](https://www.oed.com/public/login/loggingin#withyourlibrary) required.)

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-Wagner_25-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-Wagner_25-1) Wagner, Bryan. *The Tar Baby: A GLOBAL HISTORY*. Princeton University Press. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-0-691-17263-7](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-691-17263-7).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-26)** ["Vintage Black Americana Bar of Toilet Soap Tar Baby Brand"](https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/vintage-black-americana-bar-toilet-1840862070). *Worthpoint*. Retrieved October 1, 2025.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-27)** Henderson, Nia-Malika (November 26, 2021). ["Politicians should stop using the phrase 'tar baby.' Like, now"](https://web.archive.org/web/20151011201144/https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2014/11/10/politicians-should-stop-using-the-phrase-tar-baby-like-now/). *Washington Post*. Archived from [the original](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2014/11/10/politicians-should-stop-using-the-phrase-tar-baby-like-now/) on October 11, 2015. Retrieved May 26, 2024.

## Further reading

- Espinosa, Aurelio M. (1939). "Three More Peninsular Spanish Folktales That Contain the Tar-Baby Story". *Folklore*. **50** (4): 366–377. [doi](/source/Doi_(identifier)):[10.1080/0015587X.1939.9718198](https://doi.org/10.1080%2F0015587X.1939.9718198). [ISSN](/source/ISSN_(identifier)) [0015-587X](https://search.worldcat.org/issn/0015-587X). [JSTOR](/source/JSTOR_(identifier)) [1257403](https://www.jstor.org/stable/1257403).

- González Casanova, Pablo (1946) : *Cuentos indígenas*.

- Schultze Jena, Leonhard (1977) : *Mito y Leyendas de los Pipiles de Izalco*. El Salvador : Ediciones Cuscatlán.

- Patiño Rosselli, Carlos (1983) : *Lengua y sociedad en el Panlenque de San Basilio*. Bogotá : Instituto Caro y Cuervo.

- Wagner, Bryan (2017): *The Tar Baby: A Global History*. Princeton: Princeton University Press

## External links

- Media related to [Tar baby](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Tar_baby) at Wikimedia Commons

- The dictionary definition of [*tar-baby*](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Special:Search/tar-baby) at Wiktionary

- Works related to [Uncle Remus: His Songs and His Sayings/The Wonderful Tar-Baby Story](https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Uncle_Remus:_His_Songs_and_His_Sayings/The_Wonderful_Tar-Baby_Story) at Wikisource

- [Monkey and turtle story from Philippines](https://archive.org/stream/philippinefolkta11028gut/11028.txt)

- [Folktales of ATU type 175](https://sites.pitt.edu/~dash/type0175.html) by [D. L. Ashliman](/source/D._L._Ashliman)

v t e Uncle Remus Characters Br'er Rabbit Br'er Fox and Br'er Bear Tar-Baby Notable stories The Laughing Place Br'er Rabbit Earns a Dollar a Minute Adaptations Song of the South Coonskin The Tales of Uncle Remus: The Adventures of Brer Rabbit Bruh Rabbit and the Tar Baby Girl The Adventures of Brer Rabbit Related Joel Chandler Harris Jump! Tales of the Okefenokee Disney franchise "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah" Splash Mountain Uncle Remus and His Tales of Br'er Rabbit Kinect: Disneyland Adventures

v t e Ethnic slurs by ethnicity Africans Abeed Black Diamond Boerehaat Choc ice Cushi Golliwog Hottentot Kaffir Wog Europeans General Ang mo Angry white male Bule Cracker Farang Gammon Guiri Guizi Gweilo Honky Mat Salleh Redleg Trixie Wasi'chu White monkey White nigger Whitey Wigger Wog Albanians Šiptar Turco-Albanian British Anglo-Saxons Limey Pom Scots Teuchter (Scottish Highlanders) Welsh Crachach (Welsh-speaking elite) Dic Siôn Dafydd (Anglophile Welsh) Sheep shagger Taffy Dutch Cheesehead Finns Chukhna French Cheese-eating surrender monkeys Gabacho Germans Hun Kraut Greeks Grecomans Irish Fenian (Republicans) Knacker (Irish Travellers) Pikey (Irish Travellers) Shoneen (Anglophile Irish) Taig (Irish Catholics) West Brit (Anglophile Irish) Italians Goombah Guido Polentone (Northern Italians) Terrone (South Italians) Wop Wog Poles Polack Russians Moskal Orc Tibla Serbs Shkije Serbomans Spaniards Gachupín Polaco (Catalans) Quinqui (Mercheros) Xarnego Ukrainians Khokhol Ukrop Others Bulgarophiles (Macedonians and Serbs) Hunky (eastern and central europeans) Yestonians (Russified Estonians) Asians East Asians General Banana (westernized East Asians) Gook Sangokujin (Korean and Taiwanese) Toku-A (Chinese and Korean) Twinkie (westernized East Asians) Chinese Ah Beng Chankoro Chinaman Ching chong Chink Chinky Coolie Jook-sing (overseas / westernized Chinese) Locust Shina Toku-A Zhing-zhong Japanese Jap Jjokbari Nip Xiao Riben Koreans Ban-jjokbari (Japan-affiliated Korean people) Gaoli bangzi Sangokujin (also Chinese) Toku-A Taiwanese Sangokujin Tai Ke (Benshengren) South Asians General American-Born Confused Desi (ABCD) Coconut (westernized South Asians) Coolie Wog Bengalis Bong Bongal Danchi babu Dkhar Kalar Malaun Mayang Indians Chinki (Northeast Indians) Coolie Keling (Maritime Southeast Asian-origin Indians) Pajeet Pakistanis Paki Southeast Asians Filipinos Vietnamese Eurasians Arabs Pallywood (Palestinians) Rafida (Shi'ites) Raghead Wog Jews Christ killer Jewish-American princess (JAP) Kafir Khazar (Ashkenazi Jews) Kike Marrano (Conversos / Crypto-Jews) Rootless cosmopolitan Wog Yekke (German Jews) Yid Zhyd / Zhydovka Żydokomuna Turks Kebab Mongol Kanake Romani, Dom, and Lom Didicoy Gypsies (sometimes used against other semi-nomadic groups) Nawar Zott Oceanians Anglo-Saxons (English Australians/New Zealanders) Blackfella (Indigenous Australians) Hori (Māori) Kanaka (Pacific Islander) Coconut (Pacific Islander) North and South Americans Indigenous Eskimo (Inuit / Yupik / Unangan), Indian/Injun (Native American / First Nations / American Indian) Redskin/Red Indian (Native American / First Nations) Squaw (Native American women) Blacks Alligator bait Black American princess Black Buck Cocolo Colored House Negro Jim Crow Macaca Mammy Mulatto Negro Nigger (Nigga) Pickaninny Rastus Queen / Queenie Sambo Schvartze Tar-Baby Uncle Tom Wog Whites Anglo-Saxons (Anglo-Americans) Angry white male Becky Buckra Conch (Bahamians of European descent) Coonass (Cajuns) Cracker Gringo Gweilo Haole Hillbilly / Hilljack Honky Karen Peckerwood Poor White Redleg Redneck Swamp Yankee Trailer trash Trixie Wasi'chu White monkey White nigger White trash Whitey Whitexican Wigger Others Beaner (Mexicans) Canuck (Canadians) Chirigüillo Cholo (Mestizos) Coonass (Cajuns) Greaser Gusano (Cubans) Half-breed Naco Newfie (Newfoundlander) Okie (Oklahomans) Pindos (Americans) Pocho (Mexican Americans) Roto (Chileans) Spic Ugly American (Americans) Veneco (Venezuelans) Wetback Yank / Yankee (Americans) Outsiders Ajam (non-Arabs) Barbarian Fresh off the boat / F.O.B. (immigrant) Gadjo (non-Romani) Gaijin (non-Japanese) Goy (non-Jew) Gringo (non-Latin Americans) Guizi (non-Chinese) Kafir (non-believer) (pl. Kuffar) Reffo / Balt (Non-Anglo immigrant to Australia) Savage (usually Indigenous, regarded as primitive/uncivilized) Shegetz (non-Jewish boy or man) (pl. Shkutzim) Shiksa (non-Jewish woman)

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Tar-Baby](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tar-Baby) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tar-Baby?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.